True-ly Obsessed

In the previous post, I mentioned that I have lots of good tv to watch and cannot be bothered with eating, showering, sleeping stripping my french doors any further.  One of the best shows I've started watching this year is True Blood.  This show (and the brilliant Dexter) is the reason I renounced my usual frugalality and decided to spring for the Showtime, HBO and Cinemax bundle.  I have never purchased premium channels in my life, but I couldn't bear the thought of waiting for the second season of True Blood and fourth season of Dexter to come out on DVD.  I had purchased season one of both these shows on a whim based on buzz, and I am so happy I did because they both make me laugh, scream, cringe, and puke in my mouth a little flush with excitement in each and every episode.  How amazing is a show that spans your emotions like that??  The second season of True Blood was watched 'on demand' in little more than a week and it was dee-vine.  We are currently enjoying Dexter's fourth season and it is also delicious.  Jury is still out on whether I will keep these channels after Dexter wraps in a couple months....we'll see.  You have to see these shows!!! 

ps - is it bad that my two favorite shows are really violent? 

Epic FAIL

Dear French Door(s),
We had such grand plans to stain you a gorgeous shade to match our refinished floors, didn't we?  I am sorry that after one gallon of Smart Strip, eleventy million dozens of sandpaper sheets, hours of scraping, glopping, picking, heating, sanding and screaming later, you are still covered in a thin, seemingly impenetrable layer of gross oil-based paint. 

We rejoiced when the wood grain started peeking through, but the end still wasn't in sight several 'strip sessions' later.  After our best efforts, the paint still clung to you like Nicole Kidman to her Botox needle.   

And quite honestly, we are tired.  We want to do other things.  There are really good shows on tv this fall that aren't going to watch themselves!

So, you will soon be primed and painted white.  Again.  Like all the other doors in the house.  And you will have to like it.  But don't worry, you will look beautiful.  And I will get drunk on the power of HBO and Showtime on demand for the first time in my life.  And probably drunk on wine, too.     

Take heart, though. Your original hinges are looking mighty spiffy, so that's something.

               

We hope you can forgive us. 

Love,

Sara and Shaun

Why so fickle?

I feel like Blogger is a mean mean boy that sometimes likes me, and other times acts like I am Jessica Simpson a sad desperate cow that is clingy and annoying. 

(for the record, I think Jessica Simpson is lovely and desirable, but that is a story for a different day regarding the unfair way the media portrays celebrities)

Why does it have to be so difficult?  Why can't I do my thing and have everything work as beautifully as it did yesterday?  It reminds me of my first 'real' boyfriend, during the summer before my sophomore year of high school.  I was all of 15 so this was a totally PG relationship, but it still counts.  We had a great time: movie nights, group hangs, trips to Six Flags, Fourth of July fireworks, we really liked each other.  Fall of my sophomore year, he left my house after some pleasant tv watching and a goodnight kiss, then called me that night to say he wanted to break up.  Wha?  Come again?  I was so confused.  He had just been talking about the upcoming Winter Formal dance future!  But it didn't really hit me until the next day when he sailed on down the hallway instead of stopping at my locker like he did every morning, leaving me standing there in teary-eyed shock.  It completely hurt my feelings that he was serious and I had been DUMPED by a guy that was not even as high on the social ladder as I was. 

Much like Blogger hurts my feelings.  Why does it hate me and put my photos all over the place even though I have dutifully centered them?  Why does it put unnatural spaces in between lines, even though I have painstakingly spaced them the way I want them?  Haven't I made it happy by widening my columns to showcase how lovely posts can look?  Haven't I increased the size of my photos so people will say "OOOOH, AAAAAH, what lovely photos!" ??  Haven't I googled absolutely everything out there for guidance and read up on HTML codes??  Well, Blogger, HAVEN'T I??  You are a fickle partner to be sure.  I love and hate you.  You are my John Mayer.  And Tony Romo.  And maybe Nick Lachey, too...jury is kinda out on that one.  Any Blogger advice is welcome people!!   

If You Liked Him Then You Shoulda Put a Hat On Him

Last Saturday we had a very fun (albeit drizzly) day at Party on the Pavement, the annual street festival in historic Downtown Racine: 

(Image from atop the Ferris Wheel, courtesy of Racine Post)

We wandered around with our beers, stopping into various shops, bars, and art galleries.  We listened to live bands, ran into friends (well, just my brother), pet lots of dogs, and just meandered around to our hearts content.  Then we found a shop that attracted Shaun like teenage girls to glittery vampires.  The selection of hats at Copacetic on Main street is totally amazing.  Their tagline is "Look good. Feel happy", and we were certainly happy while shopping.  Here is the great assortment we played with for about a half hour:

The one he is wearing in this pic is the one he bought, but there were many trials before the winner was picked. Observe:

             Seriously, do people really wear Leprechaun hats?

             Essential accessory for all your 'pirate' ensembles.  I am really not sure if this is here for Halloween or all year round??  Questionable.

 

The 'Samuel L. Jackson' look, complete with serious face.

Hopefully he never really takes up hunting....ugh!

The winner!  Justin Timberlake, this is how you wear a hat. 

In between snaps, I also got in on the fun. Now I know where to go if I ever win a trip to the Amazon. 

Newsboy, or gangster?  I'm not sure, but I can't pull it off either way.  Doesn't matter, I will just steal Shaun's when I want to ham for the camera:

I was so glad we got out and supported our local business owners.  Hopefully there will be many more 'exploring' days where we find other gems in our city.  By the way, I totally think I look cuter in this hat.   

Sleeping in required

I am ashamed because I didn't take photos of some of the rooms in our house before our renovating began.  I had a Lindsay Lohan moment where I thought I had taken pictures, but really I was just thinking about the photos from the real estate listing that weren't even mine.  Doh!  In this picture of our master bedroom, we had already ripped out the carpet, dismantled another huge mirrored closet identical to the one in the guest room, painted, and moved in our furniture.  Still, it was looking as empty as my fiance's wallet after a TJ Maxx trip:

And this is our room after adding Ikea curtains, a Craigslist find rug, art I already had, and some cute accessories and bedding:

Does anyone know why my lampshades have turned so yellow recently? Can they be cleaned or something?

This room has northern and eastern exposure, I love the soft light we get all day. 

The chair was a great buy at Overstock, the famous 'Keep Calm' print was purchased on Etsy, table was a hand me down, and the lamp was a TJ Maxx find. 

The door on the right leads to what we affectionately call the 'not bathroom'.  There used to be a half bath there according to the blueprints we found, but the previous owners decided to drywall and lay a new laminate floor over the plumbing.  Why?  We really can't figure out many things they did.  The door on the left leads to a walk through closet.    

One day I will repaint the built in dresser and closet walls, but for now it works fine just the way it is.  Do you love those 'huggable hangers' as much as I do?  They are so sleek. 

The other side of the closet is not quite as charming, but does the trick:

I absolutely love the way our room looks, and want to thank the great Etsy sellers that sold me the pillow covers and artwork for the room: pipdesigns, Lilybethgoodies, and pressureless. 

Good night everyone, I'm off to bed.  I don't get to sleep in, though.  Sigh. 

It is officially winter in Wisconsin

Not really, winter isn't 'official' until December 21st, even though it's already down to 50 degrees. Yes, I'm abusing the word 'officially,' not unlike those who misuse the word 'literally'..."I'm telling you, I was so embarassed I literally DIED!"  You know who you are.  English language lesson aside, I wanted to take this opportunity to bid a sad goodbye to my beloved patio:

Well, at least to the umbrella and seat cushions which have already been brought in for the season, tiki torches, hibiscus tree, and our annuals.  We may still drag the cushions out for some firepit gatherings, but for the most part this party is over.  The hibiscus will spend the winter in our house until next spring, however our house will be only marginally warmer than the outside chilly since I'm an extreme miser with the heat. We usually keep it around 55 degrees while we're sleeping and away from the house, which is most of the time.  So maybe this is a permanent goodbye for Ms. Hibiscus.  We'll see if she toughs it out!  
ps - don't worry, we have snuggies   

Our Vintage Bath

While the downstairs bath in our house was severely lacking when we closed on our house, the upstairs bath was considerably cuter with nice black and ivory vintage tiles and a good size window.  The drawbacks included a very worn white laminate counter that extended over the toilet (??), another 'sea shell' light, and a dinosaur of a toilet that ran unless you jiggled the handle:

Not to mention the big white ceramic knobs on the drawers that were better suited to a classroom than an adult space.  We lived with this for awhile, tried to pretty it up with some red accents, but ultimately we moved the downstairs toilet up here, got a new light fixture, changed out the vanity knobs, spray painted the counter (a short term fix) and painted the walls.  Eventually we will fix up the vanity, get a granite top and I already have a new Kohler faucet chilling in a closet waiting for it's debut. Here is what we enjoy for now:

We removed that counter that extended over the toilet and made it impossible to get into the tank.  What were they thinking?  I can't wait to get rid of this counter, but it does look a lot better after I slathered on black paint as thick as Gossip Girls' eye makeup. 

I am not fond of the mirror....

But we can't remove it because this is what is underneath:

Nice, right?  I bought a glass vase to hold the TP, thanks to the Youngsters for the idea! 

                  

I bought some fabric and did a window 'mistreatment' ala the Nester.  I think it looks pretty good for a piece of fabric tacked to the wall and bound up with ribbon!  No sewing necessary. 

                         

While the built in soap and glass holders above the sink are outdated, they still make a nice place to display our stylish spectacles.  But this quirky feature of the bathroom is a little laughable:

Yeah...the crazy things you could buy back in the day.  I really can't bear to hang anything on it because it's creepy.  Since we embraced the vintage look, I chose Behr Aquatone for the walls, and found some nice prints at Hobby Lobby to decorate the wall:

And since I understand the importance of color-coordinating pets to decor:

He may or may not have started drinking out of the sink after that....cats don't have any boundaries, do they??